On another matter: here are some earlier visitors (you know who they are, don’t you!) to the couch sporting some ‘non-Muslim beards’.

This here, though, is clearly a gen-u-ine “Muslim beard” (according to Brian Kilmeade, the one who isn’t Steve Doocy).

On the couch at Fox & Friends this morning, let us hear Keith Ablow – FOX’s ‘psychiatric consultant’ – look deeply into Bergdahl’s participation in a ballet some years back:

“The fact that he was a dancer and a lifter — not a weightlifter, but I guess he would lift the ballerina — what does that mean?” Brian Kilmeade asked, with an assist from fellow host Steve Doocy.

“Supposedly he was recruited by these girls to have that role,” Ablow replied. “I think front and center on any stage is this guy’s M.O.: unless it doesn’t feed him narcissistically — you can’t give him a job unless you’re going to tell him you’re the star and we’re going to keep you at a throttle of twelve out of ten.”

And then the pinpoint turn: “I’ve been saying it before, Barack Obama does not have the will of the American people, Americanism, in his soul. This swap, somebody who may not feel very American for five people who definitely don’t, is symptomatic of that. It was bound to happen when you have a leader who doesn’t affiliate with patriotism.”

“Well, he definitely wanted out of Afghanistan and maybe it’s his way of closing GTMO regardless of the consequences,” Doocy said.

“He wants out of America, my friend,” Ablow said. “Trust me.”

Ablow prefaced the entire exchange by conceding he had not evaluated Bergdahl or his parents “formally,” which is TV-psychospeak for “at all.”

While providing Fox News television “medical analysis*” of the October 11th, 2012 Vice Presidential debate, Ablow strongly and repeatedly suggested that some of Vice President Joe Biden‘s behaviors, such as interruptions of the opposing candidate and what he believed to be excessive laughter, might mean that he should be evaluated for dementia, alcoholism, or other conditions.[22] “I’m not diagnosing him,” he clarified. “I haven’t evaluated him. But psychological testing – It’s anyone’s guess what it would show.”

*’Medical analysis’ – who in that god-forsaken place assigns a ‘medical analyst’ to debate commentary?

This looks exactly right to me. It’s FOX after all. Plus I’m too lazy to go any deeper than reading this post at Andrew Sullivan’s (gay conservative Catholic now disowned by the right for something-or-other) blog, The Dish.

So why? Demonizing Obamacare is not working quite as well anymore as polls show more acceptance among Americans. But Benghazi? Oooooh, a shiny object that will – once again – do just fine for now to fuel the outrage machine until Monica/Hillary crowds it out.

From the couch of the stupid, Elizabeth Hasselback lamented that ““ you have our soldiers not being able to arm themselves . . . if they do have a weapon, they are to register it within five days of purchase. . . then that must be stored away in these lockers so that it cannot be carried on their person, therefore leaving them vulnerable.”

Doocy then pointed to the current Democratic president by quoting a conservative blogger: “Gateway Pundit, which is a way right-leaning blog, what they write this morning is, ‘The Obama administration is responsible for this mass shooting. They witnessed this before, they didn’t learn a thing. Gun-free zones are death zones. It is time to stand up to the lunacy.’”

Tea Party hero “Joe the Plumber” (name’s not really Joe and he never was a plumber) has a new job. At Chrysler. Which could hire him because they didn’t go out of business in 2009 after, you know, that socialist ‘rescue package’ from the Feds saved their baby bottoms. Also, it’s a union shop – Joe is now a member of the UAW.

“In order to work for Chrysler, you are required to join the Union, in this case UAW. There’s no choice – it’s a union shop – the employees voted to have it that way and in America that’s the way it is,” he wrote.

Republican Governor Rick Snyder of Illinois – adored by the new Right – chooses Kevyn Orr as Emergency Manager of Detroit. Very good. Smart man. Chosen why? Chosen because he did it for GM and Snyder wanted the best.

Uh-oh . . . wasn’t there a certain media narrative in the way-back machine about how the auto bailout was a disaster?

What’s a FOX pundit to do? How can Limbaugh talk his way around this one? Eh. You know he will – child’s play for he who can, and brilliantly does, justify absolutely any flip-flop as long as it’s his own or committed by any of his ideological allies (a cast which also changes over time adding yet another layer to the challenge of justification, but Rusty is up to it. No one does it better.)

Sarah is hustling to rake in those last dollars before she fades entirely into obscurity. And how better than a book declaring her committment to stopping those who have declared the ‘War on Christmas’.

Now, those who declared that War were just down the hall from Sara in the Fox News Channel marketing department . Perhaps she didn’t know that. But as she’s recently been fired, I’m going to guess that they thought it prudent to stop her before she came through on her “committment to stop” them.

From her big announcement:

Palin also “will share personal memories and traditions from her own Christmases and illustrate the reasons why the celebration of Jesus Christ’s nativity is the centerpiece of her faith.”

rallies at strip malls all around the country for Gun Appreciation Day and

threats on the life of the prez of NRA which, as reported by Fox, are likely the fault of President Obama because he’s been mean and demonizing the NRA. (Well, that’s obvious!)

Kind of nice how Gun Appreciation Day falls on the MLK Holiday weekend, isn’t it.

Bit the second: in news from my old backyard, a cross-dressing Monsignor in Bridgeport CT has been arrested for dealing crystal meth. He had been pastor at the Catholic Cathedral there before he resigned last summer.

Since his resignation, he has been receiving a stipend from the Diocese and they had intended to keep paying it until:

. . . reading in the Connecticut Post that Wallin, 61, is accused by federal authorities of making so much money from selling the drug that he purchased an adult sex shop in North Haven named The Land of Oz to launder the money, Wallace said the diocese may stop the payments.

May stop paying him. May.

Sources with knowledge of the case told the Connecticut Post that while pastor, Wallin was observed dressing as a woman and was visited in his residence by men dressed as women who performed sex acts with him in the cathedral’s rectory. The sources said an assortment of sex toys was found in Wallin’s residence.

I guess Mother Church can be allowed a sigh of relief on that particular. It, at least, was consensual.

And bit the third: CNN has been covering the Inauguration since early this morning from a cold outdoor location facing the Capital. Because you can’t grab a seat too early. Or because they think it’s the Superbowl maybe?

That’s kind of comforting actually. Seeing CNN be CNN reminds me that some of the world’s silliness has survived the world’s madness.

Oh the stupid, it just hurts. The ‘timing is suspicious’ they say. Perhaps it might have been better if NBC did their one hour benefit concert before the storm and not so close to the election.

After all, they could have included Meatloaf (formerly a favorite of mine). Listen to what a has-been who’s lost the voice sounds like (he jumps in at 1:00) and check out the confused Mitt Romney who has certainly never heard Paradise by the Dashboard Light.

Chatting with the Arborist in a post below, I noted something I’ve been meaning to write about, but I never got around to it.

On FOX News a few years ago in a conversation about those lazy masses dragging down good honest hard working ‘mericans, actor Craig Nelson famously said: “I’ve had hard times too. I’ve even been on food stamps and welfare. Did anybody help me? No.”

He did indeed. And he had a few things to say about that gorgeous nation – actually, I don’t think he noticed the gorgeous part – in an article on his website (forget trying to find it; the site is one of those Rush-style ‘premium membership’ places . There is, after all, money to be made.)

It seems O’Reilly isn’t impressed with Iceland. He did note, however, that “they dress neatly and speak English.” Which I think he considers a good thing. I’m reminded that a few years back O’Reilly wrote about his first time going out to dinner in Harlem. He was quite pleased to discover that in the restaurant people ‘acted normally’ and there were tablecloths. Or something.

Anyway, Icelanders are not thrilled. Some of them even wrote about it.

In my personal opinion Bill O’Reilly’s article is . . . nothing but a collection of unverified statements and foolish assumptions spiced up with arrogance and ignorance.

(Narcissist that I am), I’ve been perusing old posts here at Whatever Works (actually, I am trying – without much success – to find something).

My browsing brought me back to this one. It’s from last April when Donald Trump was flirting with being the most-powerful-man-in-the-whole-widest-world, while simultaneously planning his epic expose to prove Obama’s really a secret KENYAN!

But he wasn’t always on Sean Hannity’s ‘A’ List. Here’s the pre-birther Donald:

“By imposing a one-time 14.25 percent net-worth tax on the richest individuals and trusts, we can put America on sound financial footing for the next century.” –Writing in his book, The America We Deserve, January 2000

“I’ve been around for a long time. And it just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans.” –Interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, March 2004

I have neither seen nor heard the right-wing noise machine gearing up for the outrage extravaganza, but I know the script. So do you. He’s running for office! And, and, and this has never happened before. Yikes, I’m so very tired of it.

But this post is a natural opportunity, so let me remind us all that today is the is the 184th day of the eleventh year of the war in Afghanistan.

This photo from the Summit of the Americas will no doubt be titillating to viewers of FOX News tomorrow. (They’ve never been able to shut down those visions of Clintonish sugarplums dancing in their heads.) The randy Telegraph (UK) kicked off the next! big! thing! with this headline (this really is the headline):

Rick Perry and Herman Cain went home, but we still have these guys – to wit, today’s editorial:

Is Obama ‘Dangerously Close To Totalitarianism’?

Given the president’s end-runs around Congress, his shredding of the Constitution and his assault on the authority of the courts, a second term free of electoral restraints may be a frightening prospect.

Judge Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News commentator, raised the question on Neil Cavuto’s “Your World” show Wednesday. And while it seems fanciful in light of the safeguards built into our democracy and its institutions, it recognizes the threat posed by the president’s policies and actions if left unchecked.

“I think the president is dangerously close to totalitarianism,” Napolitano opined. “A few months ago he was saying, ‘The Congress doesn’t count, the Congress doesn’t mean anything, I am going to rule by decree and by administrative regulation.’

“Now he’s basically saying the Supreme Court doesn’t count. It doesn’t matter what they think. They can’t review our legislation. That would leave just him as the only branch of government standing.”

I guess Judge Napolitano has a poor memory*, something I understand completely as I am deficient in that way myself. Which is why I don’t opine on the teevee about how Obama is doing stuff that’s never been done in our history. (*see previous post.)

IBD has cleverly provided itself with some cover – by putting that headline in the form of a question. So they can always claim that: “We didn’t say that! We said Napolitano said that! We just wondered if it was true!”

Karl Rove had especially harsh words for Chrysler’s “Halftime” advertisement starring Clint Eastwood. Conceding that “it was an extremely well-done ad,” Rove nevertheless tied it to Obama administration strong-arm tactics. “It is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the President of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising,” Rove said. He added that Chrysler executives must have felt it necessary “repay their political patrons.”

Because Chrysler isn’t interested in selling cars.

UPDATE: I meant to add that this may have been Rove’s ‘jump the shark’ moment. If not, it sure should be.

Appearing on Fox and Friends Monday, Donald Trump wasted no time in giving himself credit for Mitt Romney‘s landslide victory in the Nevada caucus.

“There was a lot riding on that particular race in Nevada and it was interesting, because the numbers were much, much greater than you thought,” Trump gloated. “And a lot of people are giving me credit for that. And I will accept that credit.”